Certificate represents 100 shares of CofGa common stock

CofGa Stock Certificate

CofGa Stock Certificate 6339 confirms Earl Knudeth as owner of 100 shares of CofGa common stock. It was signed by President Ben J. Tarbutton and issued on Feburary 25, 1956.

Because Mr. Knudeth's name was actually written on the stock certificate, it is likely that the certificate was conveyed to him. The advantage of having a stock certificate in one's possession is that it is simple to prove one's ownership. However, there are disadvantages. For one thing, is possible to loose the certificate, say to a thief or a fire, and getting a replacement is inconvenient. Also, it takes longer for an owner who is holding a certificate to sell the stock, because the owner first has to convey the certificate to the broker.

Today, most stockowners never see their certificates, because their brokers hold them. The broker buys the number of shares a client wants, but instead of conveying them to the client, the brokerage places the shares in its vault and notes in a journal how many belong to the client. In this case, a client can sell quickly in the face of a sudden downdraft, because the broker has the shares ready to convey to the purchaser.

Shares of widely held companies are traded on stock markets. They are, that is, until another company acquires the company that issued them. On June 17, 1963 Southern Railway acquired a majority of outstanding Central of Georgia shares and assumed control of the company.

Any remaining shareowners were certainly given the choice of taking cash for their shares, but they might have also been offered stock in the Southern Railway in exchange for their CofGa stock. Those who took cash got a check and those who took Southern stock got new certificates, but both were required to convey their shares to a designated agent of Southern Railway, who canceled them.

An agent may cancel a stock certificate just like a checking account customer cancels a check, by writing the word "VOID" on it. In this case, it appears the agent used a punch that recorded the number "10-2-63" and the date down the right side of the certificate. Certificate 6339 was, thus, canceled on October 2, 1963, just less than four months after the transaction that canceled the independent operation of the CofGa was executed.